The former home of the Nebraska State Fair has become the center of innovation and research.

The latest building, The Rise, is the fifth at Nebraska Innovation Campus (NIC). NIC is already home to more than 30 partners, both private and public entities.

“The vision is, we were out of space,” said Dan Duncan, NIC Executive Director. “We’re probably about 94, 95 percent leased in the existing facilities that we have. ”

NIC’s $15.3 million Rise Building is modeled on tech company headquarters in San Francisco and Montreal. It includes a space called The Hub, an area that features furnished offices of various sizes, collaboration spaces, a shared breakroom and a shared conference room.

The building is also home to Virtual Incision, a medical device company founded by University of Nebraska faculty.

Rural Radio Network’s Bryce Doeschot sits down with Dan Duncan, NIC Executive Director, to discuss the newest building on the campus.

“We actually had another entity that we couldn’t fit into the building here,” Duncan said. “So we’re considering another building after this one.”

At full build-out, NIC will be a 2.2-million square-foot campus. It is envisioned that up to 5,000 people could be working on NIC at full build-out with ⅓ employed by the university and ⅔ employed by private business and non-university employees.